A video from January is proving the feds absolutely right. It shows the Lachman fire still smoldering underground with no firefighters in sight, just as the DOJ said earlier this week.
That fire then became the deadly Palisades fire that killed 12 and destroy 7,000 homes and businesses.
Why were there no firefighters monitoring this when it’s clearly smoking:
The LAFD Assistant Chief said this on January 16:
“On the fire on New Year’s Eve. I was not there. I was out of town. However, when that fire broke out I got – myself and my deputy chief were up on the phone talking to each other and talking to the Incident Commander.
“I can tell you those people on that fire ground were highly qualified and well-trusted. They also did what they called a cold trailing operation well into the next day. We kept a patrol well over 36 hours. We kept the hose line on the hill, we call it we kept it plumbed just to go back and continue to patrol. That fire was dead out.
“If it is determined that was the cause, it would be a phenomenon.”
It wasn’t plumbed in this video and all fire assets were gone. Wood can still burn underground and my guess is that the roots of trees kept this fire going, which is something a competent and thorough fire department would have realized.